We're back in session!

It was a pleasure meeting my newest batch of third graders just a few days ago! 

Thank you for the abundance of supplies! It's amazing how quickly we will go through cleaning supplies and pencils!

 

We were all smiles for our first day photo shoot!

Wednesday's read aloud, First Day Jitters, was a perfect fit for the first day of school. Readers were surprised to learn who that teachers are nervous for the first day of school too!

We began a back-to-school activity--iPad style. In addition to sharing facts about themselves as "apps," goals they have, and hobbies they enjoy, students also guessed my age, favorite food, and the number of years I have taught. I can't wait to read all of the responses!

 

Thursday we started the day with some capitalization editing. 

We continued our morning working with trivia involving the number 3...

What is 3 x 3?
What was the third state to join the union?
What is the third planet from the sun?

We dug into a science bin in our classroom library in search of answers...

Thursday's read aloud was Margaret Wise Brown's The Important Book. We noticed patterns in both Brown's writing and in the illustrator's use of color on alternating pages.

Writers then got to work drafting their own pages in our class version of The Important Book.

In math, students had the opportunity to "show what they know" on a pre-test covering basic operations, counting coins, problem solving, and equal parts. 

This week we will draft a class contract, begin work with place value, and build our reading stamina in Reader's Workshop.

See you in the morning!

'Twas the Night Before School Started...

And my first day of school outfit is all laid out--no vest or turtleneck this time! :)

 

And all through the house were the sounds of prepping, cutting, sharpening, labeling, and typing.

I can't wait to meet my newest batch of third graders!

We will read, write, learn, laugh, explain, explore, and experiment all year long!

See you in the morning for a bright start to third grade!

 

A Field Trip, the Spring Concert, and a Published Poetry Picnic

We sure closed out the year on a high note!

In math, we used real world data to convert measurements in feet to inches. Specifically, we used the heights of teachers at Memorial Park and a few Hollywood celebrities.

Late in May, we were fortunate enough to travel back in time to Plimoth Plantation to visit the Wampanoag homesite and Pilgrim village. Here is a mere snippet of our very busy day. To see the full album click here. 

 

As we prepared for our Publishing Poetry Picnic and Color Party, we chose our favorite published poem to record using an app called 30Hands. Our audio clips and photographs combined to create our Passion for Poetry video that opened our Publishing Poetry Picnic. 

To watch the Passion for Poetry video in its entirety, visit this link to our Youtube video. 

Our school's annual Memorial Day program was a touching tribute coordinated by the talented Mrs. Bissonnette.

Our fascination with all things Cinderella continued with the reading of  several versions of the traditional story.

The spring concert was beautiful! We sure have a group of talented singers among us!

Writers shared many of the exciting highlights and topics covered in third grade in a writing piece that will be displayed in the fall welcoming Mrs. Mack's newest batch of third graders.
 

We closed out May with the kickoff to our Countdown to Summer balloon surprise. Our first balloon surprise was a classroom picture-in-a-picture photo shoot! #saycheese!

 

To practice the placement of commas and the use of capitalization in names and addresses, we mailed notes home to parents and siblings. 

We closed out May with a class store. Our hard-earned BBQ Bucks were spent on funky sunglasses, bubbles, Rubik cubes, fun summery cups, and insect catchers. 

Our second balloon surprise was sidewalk chalk. It was a gorgeous morning to get creative with sidewalk chalk on the playground. 

And what a gorgeous afternoon we got for our Published Poetry Picnic and Color Party! Poets were eager to share their published poetry anthology with moms, dads, aunts, uncles, siblings, and first grade buddy readers! Not to mention the colorful and healthy spread!

And with that, May was a wrap!